As was advised by Aevor, Cornelius imbued the spatial ring with mana and thought of storing his corpse in the space within, one second the body was infront of him and in the next, it was gone. The ring had taken more than a quarter of his total mana, it made sense as Aevor had been as large as a house.

With that done he turned to the egg, looking at it he saw the intricate detail of the scale-like shell, it was dark gray in color with yellow accents, and the shell itself looked like storm clouds. Cornelius moved closer to the egg and reached his hand out to touch it, when he made contact with the shell he felt more of his mana leave him, the fire in his veins making the process almost unbearable.

Before he even realized it the egg had taken the last vestiges of his mana, Cornelius fell to his knees all his strength leaving him he coughed up blood right onto the egg. When the blood made contact with the shell something strange happened the egg seemed to have absorbed the blood causing it to start glowing in the same corrupted white of his mana, he felt the dragon within his soul roar in triumph as if it had accomplished something great.

He felt a shift within his soul as if a bond had formed with the being within the egg, he could almost feel its emotions, he felt the recognition it felt toward him and the curiosity but the emotions soon faded, replaced with tiredness as the being within the egg returned to its slumber.

But Cornelius could still feel the bond tugging at his soul. Shaking his head to clear his head of these thoughts he got back up to his feet and dusted of his clothes, he knew that he could not continue his journey as he had exhausted all of his mana so he started looking around the cave he found himself in.

The cave seemed like a strange mixture of ice and stone intertwined in a bizarre dance, resembling something like a cathedral mixed with a throne room, pillars of black marble were strategically placed around the hall. It seemed like it had once been a wonder of engineering but nature had already run its course and started to reclaim the hall.

Whatever this place had once been Cornelius did know one thing this place was truly ancient, after looking around ensuring that it was safe he sat down next to the egg and started meditating to replenish his spent mana. It took a full three hours to replenish his mana to an acceptable degree, he made his way to the egg and stored it within his spatial ring.

Cornelius did something that he had been avoiding, he took out his runic mirror and imbued it with mana.

{Cornelius Von Amydros}

{Affinity - Star of the Twilight Abyss}

{Manacore - White}

{Mana Adaptation - Initial stage}

{Bloodline - Dragon Soul}

{Mage rank - Apprentice}

{Runes - None}

{Soul Bonds - Runic mirror, Mystery Egg, Spatial Ring}

Nothing much had changed from the first time he had looked at his Runic mirror except for the extra line depicting his soul bonds, The manacore was where one stored their mana and the rankings were in order of the colors of the rainbow Starting with white and going in order of violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, red and finally black. The higher the rank of one’s core the more mana you could store but it can only be improved by long hours of meditation by slowly expanding the size of the core and then compressing it when it reaches its precipice, causing all the core to change not only in the quantity of mana but the purity of it too.

While mana adaptation worked differently, it is wholly related to the exposure to mana, once your body reaches the bottleneck of what it can endure it goes through a process of metamorphoses where all the impurities inside of your body are expelled and the body is reformed into a better conduit of mana, but the higher your adaptation is the more you become one with your element which can even affect things like personality and looks.

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Cornelius sighed and stored his runic mirror within his spatial storage ring and started making his way out of the cave there was nothing left for him there, he did not know how much time he had wasted in his unconscious state so he started his descent.

(Back at the fortress)

Three days later…

Sergeant Myers was standing in the middle of the training grounds with the soldiers waiting around him even the commander was sitting on the balcony overlooking the entrance to the fort, it was the seventh day of the test of the mountain and they were awaiting the return of the trainees. The first ones to arrive was Mathew’s unit they looked haggard and exhausted from the week's travel, some of the trainees had not made it so only five of the initial ten had made it.

The relief was evident on their faces as they walked through the fortress gates “Welcome back, you are trainees no more,” Sergeant Myers said as they stopped in front of him, the soldiers cheered at their new brothers.

It was another three hours before the next group returned, Leonard’s group had mostly been wiped out, Leonard himself being one of the casualties. Only three people had survived in that unit but even then they had barely survived they looked gaunt having lost a lot of muscle, they were littered with wounds, and their armor was ripped and shredded. Needless to say, they did not look to be in good shape the embers of life seemingly having left their eyes.

They were ushered into the infirmary as they were in terrible condition. Not even an hour later it was Cornelius’s unit that arrived, they looked healthy if a bit tired but all the soldiers except Cornelius himself were there. They were boisterous as ever laughing and joking as they walked through the gates. They all looked around hoping that Cornelius had made it there before them but he had not, worry started growing in their hearts.

“Has Cornelius arrived yet?” Strom asked.

“No, he has not.” Sergeant Myers stated calmly “Welcome back, you are trainees no more,” he said as was custom to those who have passed the trial.

Commander Zoan sighed he had hoped that the wonderboy of Prince Shtad would have amounted to more than just another corpse frozen on the mountain, at least he had kept his unit alive on the journey, even bringing a Kalethi prisoner something that had not been done previously.

Just as he was about to get up to leave one of the lookouts yelled “Look,” he said pointing above towards the mountain. Looking to where he pointed he saw the silhouette of a man covered in a bloodied white fur coat, his gait was not straight he was stumbling from exhaustion, blood leaking from the many wounds littering his body, the worst being from the one that vertically stretched from the top of his left brow all the way down from his eye ending at his lower lip, the blood was pouring like a fountain as he walked.

He walked all the way through the gate ending right in front of Sergeant Myers before he collapsed, The head of an ape-like monster was attached to his side, his clothes could barely be considered rags at this point. Cornelius’s unit rushed to his side Thompson lowered himself to pick up Cornelius he looked to Sergeant Myers who simply nodded as he made his way to the infirmary.

A day earlier…

Cornelius had been making his way down the mountain to return to the fortress when the Ape monster blocked his path once again, This time he would not run for he had been growing angrier by the day after leaving the wyvern's den, he got angrier at the situations fate constantly forced him in all the hopes and dreams that were left on him, from the prince to the now dead wyvern it seemed like everyone wanted to leave the weight of their dreams on his shoulders and he was growing tired of it so his wrath grew by the hour so when he found the ape-like monster stood before him all he saw before him was an outlet for his wrath.

So without wasting a second he ignited his draconic blood unleashing his full fury on his would-be aggressor, steam started rising from his skin, his pupils slit and his fingernails turned to razor-sharp claws that could tear through iron if necessary. He imbued his muscles with mana the fire in his veins growing in intensity his eyes started glowing in unholy light, smoke rising from his mouth and nostrils. His bulging muscles grew in both size and density, and a thin web of scales grew over his skin, he started dashing towards his opponent, the snow melting beneath his feet from the heat.

He drew his sword mid-dash and brought it down horizontally on his unsuspecting enemy, it passed through its fur and stopped only when it reached the bone, he heard an ear-splitting roar drowning out all other sounds. In response, he unleashed a roar of his own spittle flying on the back of the monster's head, mid roar he felt a heat rising in his throat as black and white fire was expelled from his mouth setting the white fur on the monster's head ablaze.

Shocked he jumped back and got in a ready stance as the monster turned to face its opponent, it roared again and moved in to sweep his legs from under him, he jumped up and delivered a slash to it causing a thin trickle of blood to flow from the wound. He jumped back again just in time to avoid a swipe from the beast's claws. They stood facing each other, neither one making a move until the beast dashed forward swiping vertically with its claws, Cornelius was a moment too late as one of its claws slashed him from his left temple all the way to his lower lip. His wrath grew again as he roared in pain fire escaping from his lips and burning the frozen hand of the monster melting it with barely any resistance for there were not many things as effective as dragon fire when it came to sheer intensity.

The monster staggered back, and Cornelius formed a a small block of light behind the beast's legs causing it to trip and fall on its back. Blood flowed from the cut on his face and the wounds on his body but he did not slow as he stood above his downed opponent and stabbed the blade through its eyes killing the beast instantly. With the last of his strength he skinned the beast and took off its head, for you never knew if the monster would regenerate or not, he flung its fur over his shoulders like a cloak and tied the head to his side, and continued his descent down the mountain.